I’m not a big fan of the trend towards “gamifying” learning, especially the trend towards creating computer games for learning. There are a number of common and well-known concerns about such games: they largely promote shallow learning, there are concerns about data privacy, and they increase screen time. These are real concerns and I worry about them, but my bigger concern is about the whole concept of gamification: these games assume that children have to be tricked into learning.
Recently, I was in a class with my middle school Montessori students. It was one of the last classes of the year, and we had finished our main “content” for the year, so we were working on crocheting a coral reef model. This actually does make use some very interesting mathematical ideas, and I’d given them a quick lesson on the math involved, but once we finished that, we just chatted and crocheted. The conversation was delightful, and went all over the place; we talked about Minecraft, the shape of the universe, General Relativity, their plans for the summer, my kids, a bit of everything.
As many of you know, I’ve long dreamed about creating a school that incorporates Montessori as genuinely self-directed education. You can read my first manifesto of this vision here. For the past six months, I have been laying the foundation to make this dream a reality and open a program in Portland, OR. Today, I took a big step. I recorded a video introducing The Montessori Unschool!
